Pepe Marti storms to his first F2 victory in the final Sprint race of the season

Pepe Marti has claimed his maiden F2 win at the Yas Marina circuit this afternoon, becoming the 18th different race winner in the 2024 season.

Following a dream getaway, the Spanish driver catapulted himself into the lead from P4 on the starting grid and commanded the race from start to finish, holding off championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto. 

Title contender Isack Hadjar crossed the line in 6th, with damage picked up at the start of the race causing him to have work to do. The gap to his Brazilian rival has now grown from half a point to five-and-a-half points going into the final race of the season. 

Paul Aron managed to bring home P3 making it his ninth podium of the season, but now finds himself out of the 2024 championship battle mathematically going into tomorrow's feature race.  

Prema's Kimi Antonelli missed today's race due to illness leaving 21 cars on the grid ready for the lights out.

It was a thrilling first lap as Pepe (Josep Maria) Marti had a dream start, taking the lead into the first corner from fourth on the grid, storming past reverse grid Pole sitter Amaury Cordeel.

Slow starts from Cordeel and Joshua Duerksen left them scrapping for second as the Spaniard extended his lead. 

Hadjar was tagged at the start with Invicta's Kush Miani, losing his front wing end plate and dropping to 11th place in the first lap. 

Maini - seemingly unscathed - made his way up to second place by Turn 6 after a cracking get away at the start of the race. 

Victor Martins - Pole sitter for tomorrow's Feature Race - was also caught up in drama after  Ritomo Mitaya made contact with him on the first lap at Turn 6. 

Bortoleto had climbed to fourth in lap three laps, trying to make an impression on the lead as his fellow title contender Paul Aron was also crucially in the points sitting in sixth after the opening six laps, but was looking to make his way through the pack. 

Mitaya was hit by a 10 second penalty on Lap 3 following his collision with Victor Martins, ruining what could have been a great start to the race for the Japanese driver. 

The championship leader Bortoleto made his way further up the field, with the two Invicta liveries fighting it out on Lap 5. 

The Brazilian capitalised and made the move up to P2 in Lap 6, putting valuable distance between himself and his title rivals. P2 and P3 for Invicta after the opening stages of the race was a good place to be in terms of the team's constructors title hopes.

Paul Aron's Hitech Pulse-Eight was up to fourth by Lap 8 following two brilliant overtakes on Duerksen and Maini respectively. 

15 laps to go and Marti still leads the Brazilian with his close rivals sitting in P4 (Aron) and P9 (Hadjar). 

The Red Bull Academy Driver turned his P9 into P8 a lap later pulling off a great move round the outside of a struggling Kush Maini and putting himself in the much needed points positions.

Frustation for Maini as he had dropped out of the points by lap 11, despite finding himself in second place in the early laps of the race.

Hadjar was looking to make the move past Dino Beganovic into seventh in order to close the gap to Bortoleto, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver however did not let up and defended well and created a great battle

Lap 17 saw Paul Aron put himself on the podium ahead of his teammate Amaury Cordeel who was having an eventful race. 

A collison with Cordeel sees Duerksen retire on Lap 19 allowing Hadjar to move into P7 and gain another crucial point in his fight for the 2024 title. Cordeel was handed a 10 second penalty for causing a collision.

Oliver Bearman was in a great place sitting in 4th on Lap 19 but was hit with a 5-second penalty for exceeding track limits in the latter stages of the race. He would drop to fifth by the end of the race. 

The chequered flag waved for Pepe Marti who had driven a superb race from start to finish with Bortoleto following him over the line to extend his championship lead. 

Paul Aron joined the two on the podium with Isack Hadjar coming home in 6th place. 

Its all to play for tomorrow as the championship battle will go to the wire for the remaining two contenders. It certainly won't be one to miss.

Tomorrow's Feature Race will take place at 13.25 local time at Yas Marina. 

Top 10 finishers in todays Sprint race
1. Pepe Marti (Josep Maria Marti)
2. Gabriel Bortoleto
3. Paul Aron
4. Dino Beganovic
5. Oliver Bearman
6. Isack Hadjar
7. Luke Browning
8. Richard Verschoor
9. Jak Crawford
10. Oliver Goethe

Katie Shepherd
Writer - F1 Journal